Really? The Flyers? With a coach unafraid to change goalies in the middle of postseason games?

Those Flyers?That would be them, along with Ilya Bryzgalov, who has a 2.19 goals-against average, an early array of wow-factor saves … and the ill-fortune of trying to rescue a team with trouble scoring.

“Bryz has done a really nice job in net for us,” Peter Laviolette said Thursday after practice at the Skate Zone. “It’s like a pitcher that goes out on the mound and doesn’t get the run support he needs to win a game.”

Before play Thursday, Bryzgalov goals-against average and .924 save percentage had both ranked 11th in the NHL. That’s hardly historic … but it’s also hardly the reason the Flyers are struggling.

“I feel like there are some areas we can be better in that might help our team be more successful,” Laviolette said. “But I think he’s had a nice start to the season.”

* * * After practice Thursday, the 2-5 Flyers hustled to Washington by rail. Tonight, they will play the 1-4 Caps.

Goosebumps?“We feel the pressure, obviously,” Danny Briere said. “We’d be lying if we told you we felt good about our 2-5 start. We don’t. But at the same time I really believe that with the team we have and if we play like we are capable, with the same intensity that we played the third period against the Rangers, things are going to be fine.

“But we have to make it happen on the ice. I don’t think it is time to press any panic buttons, but I think it is time to play a more desperate hockey game.”

That would go, too, for the Caps.

“Obviously they are going to be desperate like us,” captain Claude Giroux said. “But it’s a long season. We have got to figure out the way we play on the ice. And we just want to get better. Obviously, the two points are huge. But at the end of the day, we have to make sure we get better as a team and not get ready for just one game.”

* * *With chairman Ed Snider promising that the Flyers “will” improve on special teams, much of the practice Thursday was dedicated to man-differential situations.

Max Talbot, for one, believes that the power play will improve with the continued development of Briere, who has played just three games after recovering from a broken wrist.

“For sure,” Talbot said. “You saw Danny last game, 10 shots on net. That’s kind of a sign that he is close to being ready. I hope that is not his best, because he is going to have 15 shots next game. He is a leader here and he is a guy who can create a lot and definitely be an offensive threat.”